Can Sensors be Attached to Neurons in the Human Body?

[Femme_physics]

Wasn't sure where to post it as there is no medical engineering forum but...

Is it possible to attach a sensor to a neuron in a human body and get the human's neuron to react to the sensor being stimulated?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Yes, it's done all the time. In fact it was done first to detect the electrical activity of neurons. Microelectrodes are frequently used in neuroscience to activate neurons, have a search on google or any scientific article database and you're bound to find an array of experiments.

A recent cool development is optogenetics wherein neurons are reprogrammed to produce light sensitive proteins. Under different flashes of light the neurons can either be turned on or off

 

[Femme_physics]

Can you link me to a good source, ryan? I actually tried googling with the words "neurons" and "sensors" and I only got to "sensory neurons"

Optogenetics is definitely interesting. :)

 

[Ryan_m_b]

A good source? You probably want to invest in a neuroscience book, seriously electrodes are used all the time. Funnily enough though there have been some recent stories that got some science headlines. I've placed the links bellow, hope they're what you are looking for (if you want proper peer-reviewed papers id advice a pubmed search)

Electrode lasts 1000 days in a persons brain
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/power-of-thought-neural-implan.html

Mouse neurons used to make a biological computer to control a robot
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210073/grow_your_own_brain_robot_powered_by_rat_neurons_learns_to_avoid_walls.html

Small article on the current/future uses of microelectrodes in prosthetics
http://www.vis.caltech.edu/Press/PDFs%20of%20journal%20articles/Press/Artifficial%20limbs%20wired.pdf

Wikipedia article on brain/computer interfaces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain–computer_interface

 

[Pythagorean]

http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/26/harvard-controls-the-minds-of-worms-with-lasers-video/

 

[Femme_physics]

That's pretty cool. I hope to get into it one day.